Go digital by all means, but don't bring the venture capitalists in to do it

For centuries we the taxpayers have paid to maintain the nation’s treasures and institutions. It would be madness to hand over our archives nowIt’s brutal out there for public service institutions. They are under relentless pressure to conform to a bizarre form of market logic that requires them to turn a profit, even if the only way to do so is at the expense of the public that has supported them for all these years. Whether that’s archives that are being told to make up their budget shortfalls by selling digital access or the BBC being told to expect a much-reduced license fee and to make up the difference by figuring out how to grow Worldwide, its commercial arm.Even when it’s not so direct as that, the pressure is still there: libraries are forced to carry DRM-locked ebooks by the publishers, even though these books leak huge amounts of sacrosanct patron data – location, reading habits and social relationships – to third parties. From the NHS to the state school system to public media to museums, every institution is being recreated as something that must be judged on nonsensical quantitative metrics that can be easily gamed to make the relevant numbers go up while undermining the services they relate to. For example, schools can improve their attendance numbers by refusing to allow students to accompany their parents to events with unique educational value; hospitals can improve their finances by refusing to treat chronic and emergency patients; and archives can... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2015-02-06 00:00:00 UTC ]

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